According to a report in one of the world’s leading publications, TIME magazine, President Peter Mutharika and nine other leaders have been taking major steps towards gender equality in the world.
This rating is relation to a campaign by UN Women called “HeforShe campaign” that was introduced to ensure mainstreaming of gender issues in all sectors of society as a way of improving women and girl participation in development and nation building.
According to the TIME report Mutharika was honored with recognition for his commitment in ending child marriage in the country among the many endeavors of his.
This follows the successful tabling and passing of Marriage Bill by Mutharika’s government and Parliament respectively.
TIME magazine is quoted as saying Malawi is making major strides towards economic empowerment of women, by requiring that all commercial banks develop tailor made lending products specifically for women by 2016. This deliberate move has been undertaken to increase accessibility of credit facilities to women by 30 percent.
The Magazine writes: “Arthur Peter Mutharika, President of Malawi, is committing to fully ending child marriage in Malawi. Currently, about half of girls in Malawi are married before they turn 18– the government just passed a new law to address this problem, and Mutharika commits to fully implementing this law by creating new local marriage courts and improving marriage registration.
“Malawi is also making major steps towards economic empowerment of women, by requiring all commercial banks to develop lending options just for women by 2016, in order to increase the number of women accessing credit by 30%,” adds The Time Magazine.
The announcement of the recognition is part of UN Women’s IMPACT 10x10x10 initiative which sees 10 Heads of State, 10 CEOs and 10 university presidents committing to tangible steps in achieving gender equality.
Other leaders recognized alongside President Mutharika are Sauli Niinisto (President of Finland), Sigmundur Davio Gunnlaugsson (Prime Minister of Iceland), Joko Widodo (President of Indonesia), Shinzo Abe (Prime Minister of Japan), Klaus Iohannis (President of Romania), Paul Kagame (President of Rwanda) and Stefan Lofven (Prime Minister of Sweden)
Women involvement in development has been touted as the main key to unlocking wealth creation in developing countries, this according to Bretton Woods institutions, World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF).